Off you go.

Bealach a’ Chòinich for me, partly location, partly just a great couple of days out.

Just south of Ciste Dhubh (Munro)

On my first bikepacking trip - rode back from the Lake District and stopped on top of the Forest ofBowland in a little spot in the heather. Went to bed in a bivvy bag with double layers of clothing as it was cold, and woke up in the morning to a solid water bottle, a gas cooker that was too cold to work, and inch thick icey bits on the road. I reckon it was at least -5, maybe colder, but it was my first and most memorable night out. And on top of some fantastic hills (that I've never been back to - maybe that's another thing on the list).

Well there was was that blonde nurse after my first marriage failed....... I think I slept a little those nights

Oh wild camping you mean!!!1!!

It was here overlooking Windermere on a clear summers night a couple of years back

Tempted to name a spectacular mountain top bivi spot but this is the one that sticks in my mind from when I was still living in Norfolk.
There is a lookout tower on top of a hill in sheringham park with incredible views of the north coast. Had to drag the bike up several flights of stairs but well worth it for the view:

This explains it a bit better

Somewhere on the GR247 Bosques del Sud 2018

With Summittoppler up Carnedd Llewelyn, July 19.

Al wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:31 pm This explains it a bit better

Love it.

Somewhere in British Columbia. On a year long tour of that little bit of the world. Long time ago. Galaxy far away. There's a box of photos in my parents' garage that I haven't been through in over 30 years. All taken with a supply of chuckaway cameras my mum gave me because she was a Kodak rep way back when.

Not got a photo but first night I slept in my hammock. The view was nothing special it was just the feeling of hanging off the floor.

Tricky one this! So here's a choice of 3...

#1 Outer Hebrides
20160531_183338 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

#2 Lava field, Iceland
20170728_082814 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

#3 Snowdon (to myself!)
20170526_050107 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Probably the night I slept on top of Aonach Beag in the early Nineties. I'd got the train from Inverkeithing to Fort William, via Edinburgh and Glasgow. Walked up the Ben, while the fell race was on, then round the Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête to the summit, before heading to Aonach Beag. Woke up to a temperature inversion, which was magical. Then spent the next two days ticking off the Grey Corries and the Mamores. Then I got the train to Tyndrum, spent the night at the campsite and started off to climb Ben Lui and Ben Oss. it was hoofing it down and I'd caught a cold, so I bailed and went home. Cracking few days in the hills. Although the cold got so bad, I had to bail on a trip to Knoydart the following weekend, which was evidently epic...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpeCpO2hCFl ... j2rajxn1bj

Izoard stargaze with Biff and a good red maybe.
Or Snowdon in spring, solo trip maybe 10 yrs ago now. Also Taiwan, Hehuanshan top at 3300m or so, waking up in a Chinese painting landscape at sunrise. Or a crap urban bivi in S Italy with Will and Ben, 1st TNR, just as it was funny. Good laughs.

Good bivi nights are memorable aren't they.

Too many, for many different reasons. But for "sleep" I have one outstanding memory.

A couple of years ago I developed a really horrible chesty cough thing. It was horrible. It was like my lungs were so full of fluid that if I coughed, or even lay on my back, I felt I was drowning. You can imagine that I was finding it very hard to sleep. It went on for a few weeks. This was during one of my BAM runs and I'd had come to the conclusion that I was going to miss out.

With a couple of nights before the end of the month my determination made me decide to try a night out. I headed for Utsis Hut, a little wooden shack in Glenmore forest. It's just about big enough to sleep two folk and is constructed from the wooden crates that were used to bring in the Cairngorm Reindeer herd when it was first being re-introduced from Lapland. It was about -4C outside and around 0C in the hut. I had the best nights sleep I'd had in weeks and that night saw the start of the end of that lingering illness.

I wouldn't call myself a spiritual person but I do believe that there is something quite "magical" about that place.

I love the deciduous woods immediately to the west of Rhayader. I have slept there a couple of times over the years and it has always been very peaceful. There is something about it that feels "soft" and welcoming. I quite often try and include it when joining the dots on BB events.

Si

... rather than owt to do with scenery or views or that type of stuff, generally the unplanned places you find at the last minute when you're getting quite desperate for shelter in terrible weather. So I'll take my storm-rocked hen-house on wheels in a field near Sellafield please, my pigsty with straw in heavy rain near Downham Market with Siboy, and indeed the most recent one in a sort of croft near Ponterwyd in the Winter Event downpour with BDS and FrogATF.

I like Al's highrise eyrie best so far. Never knew it was there.

Another good game Stu - compliments.

'Reg'

The best place I ever slept was in the middle of Dudley Castle / Zoo to wake up to find out it had snowed quite heavily overnight and then the surreal sight of someone taking an elephant for a walk through the snow. A close second and more relevant to bike packing was on a beach just north of Mendocino, CA where we got to snuggle up on the beach watching the sun go down over an endless smooth ocean and then sleep amongst the dunes.

as a teenage tearaway, I spent some time in a reform school. one of the upsides was that we got to do loads of outdoor pursuits as punishment. hill walking, climbing and canoeing were regular events.

we spent a long weekend on a sea canoeing trip to the farne islands and lindesfarne.
we slept on the beach on lindesfarne in orange survival bags.
we woke up with a group of seal wallowing on the beach about a 100 yds away from us.

that was pretty nice.

Love the lookout tower!

Think the best sleep out was without bikes with my other half. We took ourselves up to a spot near Llyn y Fan Fawr on the black mountain. Frosty April night but the most amazing sunrise and view over the brecons and black mountains. And this stillness on the lake...
Perfect reflection by Matthew Walker, on Flickr

PaulB2 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:30 am ... and then the surreal sight of someone taking an elephant for a walk through the snow.

That's super random!

Easy! In my own bed after any time out on the bike

That's an even better response than Al's

But I thought it was that nice lady you bumped into in Sheffield on a ride, who invited you in off the street?

One thing I gained on my 2018 BAM campaign was an abillty to get a good solid kip in a tent / bivvy. Previously I've always struggled a bit. My best place is probably the top of the pass between Strath Sealga and Carnmore in Fisherfield last June. It was warm, there was a midge beating breeze, the weather was stunning, I'd done an amazing bike ride and there was a small burn right by the tarp the noise of which was most soothing, resulting in 9hrs of solid sleep. I'll not bother posting a pic as its been on here twice already....

'My own' private beach on Anglesey, north west part of the island. Very quiet that way